Conditional questions

Add when to a question and it is asked only when the state matches. Questions that don’t apply are skipped: never sent to the model, stored or paid for.

{
  "state": {"department": "billing", "ticket": "I was charged twice"},
  "questions": {
    "refund": {"type": "noul", "instructions": "The customer asks for a refund",
               "when": {"department": "billing"}},
    "bug_area": {"type": "choice", "instructions": "Which part of the product is broken?",
                 "options": {"app": "", "api": "", "website": ""},
                 "when": {"department": ["technical", "security"]}}
  }
}

How when matches

when is an object of {"<state field>": value}:

• The state must be a JSON object (otherwise the request gets 422), and the named fields are its top-level fields.
• A value must be equal to the field’s value; a list of values matches any of them.
• An operator object works as in rules: {"exists": true}, {"gte": 3}, {"contains": "refund"}, starts_with, gt, lt, lte. An unknown operator gets 422.
• With several fields, every one must match.
• Any question type can have when.

A skipped question keeps its place in answers as:

"bug_area": {"skipped": true}

If every question is skipped, no model is called at all. A skipped question has no answer to correct, so feedback for it gets 404.

From Python

from curva import Curva, Noul

d = Curva().decide(
    {"department": "billing", "amount": 250, "ticket": "I was charged twice"},
    {
        "refund": Noul("The customer asks for a refund").when(department="billing"),
        "review": Noul("A person should check this refund").when(amount={"gte": 100}),
    },
)

A question given as a dict takes the same "when": {...} object.

Decision trees

A field @<key> in when reads the answer to question <key> of the same request instead of the state, so a follow-up is asked only when an earlier answer calls for it, in one call:

"bug_area": {"type": "choice", "instructions": "Which part is broken?",
             "options": {"app": "", "api": ""}, "when": {"@department": "technical"}}

The question then waits for department (see Workflows in one call).

Calibration is keyed by the question without its when, so adding or changing a condition doesn’t reset a question’s calibration.